Need Help Optimizing $1000 Gaming Build

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weskinner

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Aug 14, 2010
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Approximate Purchase Date: This Week

Budget Range: $900-1000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (primarily WoW and Source Engine games).

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Parts to Upgrade: Everything, including mouse and keyboard

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, OEM Windows 7

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Location: Birmingham, AL

Parts Preferences: ASUS mobo, AMD cpu

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution:1920x1080

Additional Comments: This is a build for a friend. He has an almost hard $1000 budget. I haven't built in a while so I'm almost lost on video cards and power supplies.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Do not currently have anything.

Asus VH238H Black 23" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers 250 cd/m2 ASCR 50,000,000:1

Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard

Logitech G400 Black 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical 3600 dpi Gaming Mouse

XTRAC PADS Ripper Optical Mouse pad

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP 120mm Case Fan 4 in 1 pack

ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX

ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

SAPPHIRE Ultimate Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (100326UL)

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
 
Solution
g-unit1111


I wouldn't exactly say "bulldozes" but these benchmarks actually paint the two cards as being neck and neck: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/854?vs=857

Maybe things will change with the next round of drivers from NVIDIA but for right now either one is a good choice for that price.
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

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Jul 27, 2011
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Definitely doing this one wrong. The mouse pad is a waste of money and that Radeon 6670 is barely a GPU at all. The FX-4100 is not a good CPU. I'd lose the expensive peripherals for now and get those later. I think I would chuck that whole build and get something different.

This would be a much wiser use of funds:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($112.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($248.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $930.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-01 14:00 EDT-0400)

Just get this and add whatever monitor you want - this will completely destroy the proposed build. I lost the expensive peripherals and unnecessary mouse pad and put that into a better GPU, on a gaming build that's where it counts.
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Jul 27, 2011
42,545
819
104,940


I wouldn't exactly say "bulldozes" but these benchmarks actually paint the two cards as being neck and neck: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/854?vs=857

Maybe things will change with the next round of drivers from NVIDIA but for right now either one is a good choice for that price.
 
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Solution
W

weskinner

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Aug 14, 2010
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Thank you for the speedy reply g-unit, I'll trust your judgement on this. Also, thank you telos for the suggested replacement. If I had to squeeze a monitor into the $1000 limit, what could I adjust?
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Jul 27, 2011
42,545
819
104,940


With monitor and OS? Maybe purchase the OS separately or increase your budget to $1100. But getting anything less means that corners would have to be cut somewhere.
 
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